The Evolution of Palm

I've been a PDA user for the last 7 years. Started with a humble second-hand Palm III. Only 2 mbs of memomy, monochrome LCD.

1999- Palm III
2000- Palm III xe
2002- Palm m 505
2005- Palm TX
2006- My Left Palm, papers and Post-It® notes

The Palm III worked okay, but with very limited nonexpandable memory, had very limited uses. Also, Playboy pinups Anatomy diagrams don't look too good on monochrome. So, like every person with an XY genotype (well, okay, phenotype too. Can't picture the softies being into gadgets) LP and I were just itching to buy a new Palm, the IIIxe. 8 Mbs! The fun we could have! And like proper medical student dorks (we were in our clinical year then) we had our palmpilots strapped to our belt. The only things missing from geek arsenal was the pocket protector and inch-thick glasses.
Alas. That love affair didn't last. Two years later, when I was doing clinical teaching back home, it just did not turn on. Dead. And mercifully, as loved ones usually do, she decided to go quietly in the night. No goodbyes. No chance for the rest of us to see her take her last gasps of air, painfully wheezing. Adjustments to the battery, the typical give-it-a-knock failed to revive her. Not even cardioverting her with 200 J would help.
But no fear. I was working then, and was able to go out and buy a new palm, no questions asked. The m 505. My very first colour PDA. I 'sold' my nonfunctional Palm IIIxe to a medical student for a cup of coffee (had made it clear it wasn't working; they'd have to pay for the repairs themselves). And maybe that guy's voodoo is better than mine: the stupid thing started working immediately after he took it. Baah. I must say, the m 505 (which my sister gleefully inherited from me for free!!) I bought was the most reliable. Served me well for those few years.
Then ambition and greed overcame me again. I felt I needed an upgrade. Something with wifi and bluetooth. Hence, the TX. And the TX fiasco. Returned the first unit in a month. The unit would freeze badly when I tried using the wifi. Would be quicker for me to stroll to McDonald's and get a breakfast McMuffin, walk to a cyber cafe and log on, than to wait for the browser to work. Got a replacement unit prompty, and thought my troubles were over. But no. This one's touchscreen is possessed, I swear. The damn cursor would fly all over the place, sometime even to the very edges of the screen, when I placed my stylus somewhere else. It got so bad that for the last 2 weeks I just left my freaking palm in my bag, and resorted to yellow post-it notes. Just check out the video (that line, or cursor, is supposed to be exactly where you touch the screen).

A patient with ventricular fibrillation would get less squiggly than that!
So I called them again, and since it's well within the 1 year warranty, will have them look at it and repair it. Honestly I've about given up. I'm this close to chucking this somewhere and just paying $200 for a Tungsten E2. 200 bucks ain't worth all the trouble.
When I called them the nice lady was trying to guide me through it, "have you tried a soft reset?" etc. After listening to her instructions for 3 full minutes, I told her, "Lady, I have used palms for the last 7 years. This is my 4th. I've tried EVERYTHING! Now gimme the dang repair address!" (Ok, I was more polite. But it would have been nice to say that for once)
So, stay tuned for more.

My dream Palmpilot would be like a Swiss army knife of sorts. Hidden gadgets that would snap out. Polished shiny silver. And it would have a supermodel on the wallpaper that would sing praises of you whenever you were down in the dumps (not unlike that chocolate ad: You are a bouquet of man-liness..)